From the first pick to the last, Chip Kelly’s fingerprints were all over his first NFL draft with the Eagles.

All eight choices were from the type of BCS schools Kelly recruited against the past four years as head coach of Oregon.

Four were Pac-12 players, including quarterback Matt Barkley of USC. Kelly wanted to make it five, but pass rusher Dion Jordan, who played for the Ducks, came off the board one spot ahead of Lane Johnson, the offensive tackle the Eagles grabbed in the first round.

Advertisement

“I think it kind of just happened,” Kelly said. “There are some other good Pac-12 players that I’m aware of that went other places. When you saw them go, you’d say, ‘Wow, that kid is a really good player.’ (USC’s) Khaled Holmes … We loved Khaled. He’s an outstanding center prospect and the Colts took him. I think he went in the fourth after we took Matt.

“There are a couple top leagues out there — Pac 12, the SEC, the Big 10, the ACC. But it wasn’t by design that we were targeting one thing over another.”

The draft went seamlessly for the Eagles. Hard to believe there was concern Howie Roseman, the general manager in each of the past two seasons the Eagles struggled, would be totally in control of the draft in the Kelly era. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Starting with Johnson, Kelly had a personalized scouting report on everyone.

Kelly worked out Johnson, who also was highly recommended to Kelly by Oklahoma head coach and pal Bob Stoops.

Kelly got beat last year by second-round pick Zach Ertz, the tight end at Stanford. Tried to recruit him a few years ago.

Defensive tackle Bennie Logan, the Eagles’ third-round draft pick out of LSU, had a big game to beat Oregon and Kelly two years ago.

Kelly spoke to Stoops about seventh-round choice David King (defensive end) of Oklahoma. Safety Earl Wolff, the fifth-round pick out of North Carolina State, basically was the exception.

While Roseman suggested there were minor disagreements during the draft, Kelly indicated the key decisions had been made before it started.

“I guess the best way to say it is there wasn’t a lot of exchanging ideas today because all the work was done up until this point,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t like today Howie was going to say, ‘Hey, we should take this guy who is ranked down here.’ We really let the board play itself out.”

There was at least the temptation to force the board starting with Jordan and continuing with such Oregon players as linebacker Kiko Alonso (second round, Buffalo Bills), running back Kenjon Barner (sixth round, Carolina Panthers) and guard Kyle Long (first round, Chicago Bears). Kelly said he would have been happy with any, or all of them.

Sticking to the board in spite of personal feelings impressed Roseman. It speaks to Kelly’s discipline.

That said if Jordan was ranked higher than Johnson, which some have speculated, why not take the plunge? Truth be told, the evaluations were virtually identical.

“I think when you start to get emotional and get involved, and I was pretty conscious of that, then what do you have to do to move up?” Kelly said. “And then when you do it, it’s if you move up to get him that means you don’t get Bennie Logan because you don’t have a third-round pick, or you don’t get Matt Barkley because you don’t have a fourth-round pick. It’s the accumulation of putting the whole team together. What are you willing to sacrifice to get one player? A lot of times you look at what people did when they jump. The Redskins did it to get (Robert Griffin III), but they gave up a lot to get him. The Falcons did it a couple years ago to jump up to get Julio Jones. Usually there’s a pretty good price tag.”

When you get through the hype, the reality is the draft isn’t the only way to build the roster. The Eagles filled in holes on defense in free agency. At some point they’re going to have to line up and play. And Kelly is looking forward to putting his stamp on this Eagles team on the coaching end.